MG XPower SV

The MG XPower SV was launched amid much ballyhoo during the 2002 Birmingham motor show – and proved once and for all that MG Rover very much harboured the ambition to change the MG marque’s image from one of the producer of saloon based roadsters and tuned up Rovers, to that of an ‘extreme’ manufacturer of bespoke supercars.

The SV was a very interesting car, which was placed into a unique niche within the supercar market by MG Rover. It was more raw than a Ferrari, more aggressive than a TVR, and certainly more exclusive than a Porsche.

Whether this niche was too small, or even existent, is open to conjecture, but its eventual sales performance indicated buyers didn’t fall for its charms. At the time of its launch, things had seemed so different. MG Rover announced it came away from the 2002 Birmingham motor show with 27 confirmed orders, and that, it said, proved there was a number of buyers who bought in to the XPower SV. Today, it’s a bona fide classic.